


No One Else Sees

by englland



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angels, Ghosts, Hallucinations, M/M, Shit goes down, Spirits, idk man this is a mess, implied suicide, josh's mom cries and screams a lot, the end is kinda fluffy and cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 14:03:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6010038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/englland/pseuds/englland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They didn't believe in Tyler. They couldn't see Tyler. They couldn't feel Tyler. But Josh doesn't give a damn about them.</p><p> </p><p>Inspired by the song "Angels" by The xx</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One Else Sees

**Author's Note:**

> i should be studying for the most important exam of my life or should be doing my final project about twenty one pilots but i wrote this instead (it's almost the same thing then)
> 
> inspired by the song "angels" by the xx

Josh was an average and suburban teenage boy. He had good grades, an innocent face, a small but nice group of friends and a loving family. He was far from the ‘troublemaker’ type, what made his parents happy and relieved. Actually, the only extravagance that Josh has ever done was asking a drum set as a birthday gift.

His routine was dull. He went to school, returned home, had a snack and then did his homework. Some days he played drums for a couple of hours and helped his mother with the dinner/house chores. Josh was quite comfortable with his life. He would find it boring sometimes but he was too busy being the perfect son to ever make a change.

But the change came anyway.

Josh and his friends were talking outside the school, minutes later of the final class of the day. At that moment, the subject seemed really funny and interesting but nowadays Josh doesn’t even remember anything. The only thing that Josh remembers was seeing a brown-haired boy with a medium height around the corner. He looked quiet and shy, but the playful smile on his face showed the otherwise. There was something about this boy that drew Josh’s attention, he wasn’t exactly sure of what or why but he had a feeling that the boy was different; _special_.

“Bro?! Are you listening?” Brendon asked while snapping the fingers in front of Josh’s face.

“Yeah.” Josh replied, focusing on his friend.

A couple of seconds later, Josh looked at the spot where the boy was standing but he was gone.

 

 

At night, Josh couldn’t sleep.

On the next day, the boy wasn’t there.

 

 

Josh never saw him at the school cafeteria or at the corridors. Actually Josh never saw him anywhere before that day.

But he appeared again. In Josh’s bedroom. In the middle of the night.

Josh _should be_ but he wasn’t scared. He wasn’t afraid, instead he felt happy and calm.

“Aren’t you gonna ask me what I’m doing in your room?” the mysterious boy asked.

“No. But I want to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.” The brown-haired guy smiled and crossed his arms. He was wearing the same outfit of the other day: a white shirt with small holes in it and a pair of skinny jeans. He was only a couple of feet away from the window and Josh admired how the moonlight gleamed upon him, contrasting with the light-tan skin.

“What’s your name?”

 

 

_Tyler._

In a short period of time, Tyler and Josh became friends. Sometimes Tyler would go along with Josh on his way home after school; sometimes Tyler would break into Josh’s bedroom while he was studying or playing the drums. The most part of the time, the teenagers talked about their life, hopes, music, dreams and fears. Tyler made Josh feel comfortable, peaceful and relaxed.

One day, Josh was trying to get his science homework done on his backyard table and Tyler appeared. They spent several minutes talking and Tyler helped Josh to finish his exercises.

“Do you wanna go inside and grab a snack?” Josh asked while closing his book.

“No, I’m fine. There’s no need.” Tyler replied. His happy expression quickly changed into a nervous one. “It’s okay.” He continued, eyes glued to ground this time.

“Hey, don’t worry, my family is nice, don’t be shy.” Josh stood up and walked towards the back door.

At the same moment, his mother opened the door with a curious face.

“Josh?”

“Hey mom, this is…” Josh turned to look at the table where he was sitting minutes ago but Tyler wasn’t there anymore. “Nevermind.” He looked back to his mom.

“Are you okay? You were talking with who?”

“It’s just a friend. He’s kinda shy.” Josh replied shrugging.

“Okay… Invite him to stop by for a lunch someday.”

“I will.”

 

 

And Josh did but Tyler politely declined.

“I don’t wanna push you too far but my family really wants to meet you. You don’t have to be shy, they are quite cool.” Josh made Tyler laugh.

“It’s not about shyness, Josh. It’s different.” Tyler sat on Josh’s bed.

“Different? Different how?” Josh sat sprawled on the floor beside the bed.

“I don’t know how to explain it and you wouldn’t understand.”

They looked at each other for several minutes in a comfortable silence.

“Alright.” Josh decided to drop the subject.

 

 

The closer Josh got to Tyler, the farther he was from his family and his friends.

“Josh?” his mother said one night in the middle of the dinner table.

“Hmm??”

“Brendon called up this afternoon. He told me that you were different these past days. That you aren’t talking with him like you used to... He said that Debby, Patrick and Ashley are also worried about you.”

“Everything is fine, mom. I’m just caught up with school projects and exams. There’s nothing to be worried about.”

Josh felt all his family members glancing at him. He wished Tyler was by his side.

“Are you sure?”

Josh simply nodded.

“Brendon asked me to give you a message. Tomorrow after school there will be a movie party at his house. He wants you to go and take the popcorn.”

Josh nodded again with a boring expression. The dinner went back to normal.

On the next day, Josh made popcorn. But he ate it in his own bedroom with Tyler while listening to music and chatting.

 

 

“You should dye your hair.” Tyler blurted out on a cold afternoon.

“Why would I do it?” Josh asked when Tyler carelessly started to play with his hair.

“Because you want to. Because it would look really nice. The list goes on.” Tyler shrugged.

“You are right. Which color should I take?”

Tyler went to the mall with Josh and they bought a bright blue hair dye box.

Josh’s mother passed out that day.

 

 

“Josh. Josh!! What’s wrong with your hair?” Debby screamed while running after him at one of the school corridors.

Josh didn’t look back.

 

 

Tyler showed Josh things that he couldn’t see.

“What is this?” Tyler pointed to the black bruise on Josh’s right arm.

“I was talking with my father yesterday and he gripped my arms a little too harsh.” Josh said calmly.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. My dad gets angry sometimes. These things happen.”

“No. These things can’t happen, Josh.” Tyler kissed the bruise. “You will be okay. Don’t let him do it again, please.”

“But he’s my father-”

“Josh, no.” Tyler whispered. “You won’t let him touch you like this again, okay? You won’t.”

The blue-haired boy nodded and smiled a little bit for Tyler’s concern. No one ever cared before.

 

 

“Josh!” Mrs. Dun abruptly entered into Josh’s room. “Are you talking to yourself?”

He was confused.

“No, I was talking with Tyler minutes ago.”

“No, you weren’t. The front door wasn’t even opened today.”

Josh’s mom was right. He never really stopped to think about how Tyler got into his house.

“I think he’s just- he uses the window.” Josh answered cautiously.

“What?! You- you have to be kidding, Josh. Listen, I don’t care if your friend is shy, he’ll have to use the door like everybody else, for God’sake! I don’t want anyone using windows as doors, okay?” Mrs. Dun said seriously.

Josh nodded.

“Son, your friend is so weird.” The woman said before leaving the room.

 

 

Tyler wasn’t weird. Actually, Tyler was the best person that Josh has ever met on his life.

Josh’s father tried to punch him one night. Josh backed away and ran to his room. Tyler dried off his tears, held him tight and sang to him until he was asleep.

 

 

“Get your ears and your nose pierced. It will look fantastic.”

Tyler was right.

Mrs. Dun screamed with her son. He went to his room and started to play the drums as loud as he could ever have played in his life.

_“It’s good to put your anger and frustration on a paper or on an instrument. It helps me a lot.”_

He did what Tyler said.

 

 

“You are not my little Joshua!” Mrs. Dun was crying and screaming one day when Josh came back to school.

 _“She is wrong.”_ Tyler whispered. Josh blinked and he was right there by his side, strongly holding his hand.

“You are wrong.” Josh said with anger.

“My son, please tell me what is going on. Your grades are terrible, you stopped talking with your friends, you are treating your father and your siblings badly and this whole drumming and hair dying and ear & nose piercing. You are not like that!”

_Grades don’t define how intelligent you are. You’re one of the most brilliant people I’ve met, Joshie. Schools are made to make the teenagers feel tested and useless._

_Your friends don’t care about you, they never did. You walked with them but you were by yourself all this time. They never understood you and they never even tried._

_Your father is a piece of shit, he doesn’t deserve to be respected._

_Your siblings are empty-brained._

_You love playing drums._

_You love dying your hair._

_You love your ear and your nose pierced._

_This is what you are._

“Mom, leave me alone!” Josh climbed the stairs at the speed of light and locked himself on his room.

“The drums, Josh. C’mon.” Tyler was smiling beside him. Josh smiled too.

He drummed the whole afternoon and a big part of the night, ignoring the bangs on the door and the cuss words.

“You are great. You should play in a band.” Tyler and Josh were lying down on the carpet.

“No, you are great. You play piano, right? We should form a band.” Josh said glancing at Tyler.

“Yeah, I play but… You wouldn’t understand. You should find your own band.” Tyler looked back at him.

“You’re always talking that I wouldn’t understand. What I wouldn’t understand?”

“Josh.” Tyler sat down. “Do you like this?” The brown-haired boy sat on Josh’s lap. “Do you like us?” Tyler whispered on his ear.

“I do.” Josh replied breathless.

“So then there’s nothing to be understood. Let’s just enjoy, okay?” Tyler placed their lips together.

Josh hummed and gripped the hips of the boy above him.

 

On the next day, Josh went to a band audition and succeeded.

 

“You are the best drummer they could have found, Joshie.” Tyler whispered that night when they were lying together on Josh’s bed.

They looked at each other for hours on the pure silent. Josh felt like his heart was about to explode of happiness.

On that same night, Josh felt explosions inside his chest when Tyler took off their clothes and when they kissed hungrily and when Tyler touched him in special places and mainly when Tyler made his body feel complete, in the most literal and poetic way.

 

 

Josh dyed his hair of red. Tyler said that this new color looked better on him.

Josh got a small tattoo of drumsticks on his ankle. Tyler said that it was sick.

Josh’s mother started to listen their conversations. She said that Josh was getting insane. Tyler said she wouldn’t understand.

 

 

One night, Mrs. Dun broke into Josh’s room screaming.

“Josh, stop it! There’s no one here!”

This time, Tyler didn’t run away. He was there all the time, sitting on a wooden chair.

“Stop mom, Tyler is here, Tyler is right here!” he screamed back.

“Then where is Tyler?”

Josh pointed to Tyler’s direction.

“It is useless, Josh. She won’t understand us.”

“Son, there’s no one sitting there. You are scaring me. This prank isn’t funny anymore.”

“I’m being serious. You can’t accept that I’m in love with a boy, that’s it!”

“Josh!! This boy doesn’t exist!” The woman started to cry.

“Joshie, Josh, it’s okay.” Tyler stood up and hugged him.

Mrs. Dun was afraid. “What are you doing?”

“I’m hugging Tyler.”

“Tyler is not real!” She screamed and slapped Josh across the face. They were shocked.

“Son, I’m sorry I didn’t mean it I’m so-”

“Get out, mom.” Josh turned his back to the lady while trying to hold back his tears.

“Josh I’m so sorry baby I’m really so-”

“Get outta here!!” The red-haired screamed in rage and the woman obeyed in silence.

Tyler hugged him. Tyler kissed him better. Tyler whispered sweet nothings in his ear until he fell asleep.

 

 

They walked hand to hand on the streets. Josh was starting to get used to the weird looks he was getting. Maybe it was his hair. Maybe it was the fact that the society still is very prejudiced. But he didn’t care.

Until a certain day.

Josh and Tyler were at Taco Bell, Tyler’s favorite place in the Earth (after Josh’s bedroom) sitting one in front of the other.

“Goodnight gentleman, what is your order?” the waitress greeted Josh. Tyler had his face glued to the ground the whole time.

“Hmm, I want a quesalupa combo please. What about you, Tyler?”

The waitress was confused.

“I don’t want anything.”

“C’mon Tyler, this is your favorite.”

Josh looked at the waitress and noticed her discomfort.

“I’m fine, Josh. I really am.”

“So…?” the blonde lady faked a smile.

“A quesalupa combo and a bottle of water.” The girl nodded while writing his order.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Ty, what’s wrong? I thought Taco Bell was your favorite.”

“And it is. It’s just… I’m not comfortable here.”

“Do you wanna go home?” Josh caressed Tyler’s hand above the table.

“No, eat your food. I’ll be okay.”

“Mommy, why this boy with raspberry hair is talking with a chair?” Josh heard a little girl that was sitting with her family a couple of tables away from them. Her parents gave them unamused looks.

Minutes later, the blonde waitress came back with Josh’s order in a bag and with an old man with a calm expression on his face.

“Sir, some other customers made complaints about your attitudes. It’s not my intention to make you feel uncomfortable but the kids are scared. I’m politely asking you to leave this establishment.” The man said.

Josh was surprised by the amazed expressions of the people on the others tables, but decided to not pick up a fight.

“We are never getting into this disgusting place again.” Josh stood up and took Tyler’s hand again, dragging him out the restaurant.

“Fuck them!” Josh screamed after abruptly closing the door.

“Shhh, shhhh…” Tyler hugged his boyfriend, trying to calm him. “They can’t understand. Let it go.”

“They can’t understand that we are just two boys in love? This is ridiculous!”

“Calm down, hunny… Let’s go home.”

 

 

When they came back to Josh’s house, the reception wasn’t the best.

“Josh? Is that boy again, right? I don’t want him here! I’ve told you a thousand times!”

Tyler squeezed Josh’s hand. “Ignore them.” He whispered.

“He is not real! I’m going to put you on a bughouse!” Josh heard his mother screaming when they were rushing to the stairs.

“Forget her; she’s not going to do this to you.” Tyler said while hugging his boyfriend.

Josh locked up the door and seconds later he started crying.

“Am I never going to be free, Tyler? Am I going to suffer forever?”

“Shhhhh…” Tyler hugged Josh. “You’ll be free someday. We will be free. It’s getting closer.”

The boys gazed into each other’s eyes. Everything would be okay.

 

 

Josh was failing at school. He didn’t have friends anymore, he never actually had. His family hated him and thought he was crazy. Josh felt like it was the end of the line.

 

 

One day he woke up tied up on the bed, with a preacher screaming things in a language that he didn’t know and pressing a wooden cross against his temple. Josh could hear his mother crying; he could hear Tyler saying _they don’t understand._ Afterwards, everything went blank. He didn’t know if it was a dream or if it was real. The marks on his wrist and ankles indicate that the ropes were really once there.

Josh had enough.

 

 

“You saw it, Tyler. You saw it, you were there. You saw what they did to me.” The red-haired boy was sobbing hard.

“I saw it, baby. But everything is okay now.”

“No, it’s not!” Josh screamed. “It will never be okay!” he gripped his hair, pulling lightly.

“There’s only one way out, Joshie. I can help you if you want to.” Tyler whispered and kissed his boyfriend temple.

“I want, Ty. Please help me, please…” Josh clutched Tyler’s white shirt.

“C’mon.” He stood up and held Josh’s hand. The brown-haired boy opened the suite’s door.

Tyler sat at the closed toilet.

“Fill the tub.”

Josh did what he was told.

Seconds later, the water was almost dripping of the bathtub.

“Great. Now get into it and close the tap.”

Josh followed the instructions.

“Take a deep breath.”

He did.

“Are you ready?”

Josh nodded. “I think I am. As long as you're with me.”

Tyler smiled sweetly.

“I will be always by your side. Forever. Nothing will tear us apart, okay?”

Josh smiled too and nodded once again.            

“Ty… If someone believed me, they would be as in love with you as I am. Thank you for everything.”

The boys shared a long and calm kiss. Josh took another deep breath and let his body slide until the bathtub bottom.

The water was relaxing. Josh enjoyed being underneath. He felt a tight grip on his hand and he knew it was Tyler.

His lungs were begging for air but his mind was begging for more water. His heart only begged for Tyler.

Josh knew this is the only way of being free. He went all the way.

His eyes became too heavy and the grip on his hand started to get lighter and lighter.

 

 

Josh didn’t feel the water anymore. Josh didn’t feel Tyler’s hand holding his own hand anymore. Josh didn’t feel the ceramic of the tub on his back anymore.

But he felt Tyler’s presence.

When Josh opened his eyes, he saw a large and green park in front of him. He felt the grass swinging on his feet. He took a deep breath and felt the smell of roses.

“Josh.”

He looked back and Tyler was right there, smiling and wearing his classic skinny jeans and white shirt full of little holes in it.

“You made it.” Tyler smiled and Josh ran towards him, hugging his boyfriend tightly.

“And what happens now?” the red-haired boy asked in fear.

“Now? Now we are going to be free like you always wanted.” Tyler took Josh’s hand and they started walking ahead in the direction of a fog and a bright white light.

They were together. They were free. They wouldn’t be judged anymore. That was all that matters.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is a mess
> 
> FIRST: here in my country we dont have taco bell and i never went there or ate there so i have no idea how it works. if there's no waitress and things like that in taco bell IM EXTREMELY SORRY 
> 
> SECOND: i dont know how an exorcism works but,,,,,,, i tried to make an light exorcism scene because it is a very heavy subject to me sooo idk
> 
> THIRD: this was my attempt of making something ambiguous so i REALLY want to know your opinion about this story, like, what do you think tyler is? an hallucination, an angel, a ghost, a spirit, a demon... idk leave me your theories i would love to know!!!!!
> 
> my school classes will start tomorrow and i won't have time to read/write/post anything because i'll be so caught up with my job, school, extra activites, my final english project & a goddamn english exam that i have least than two months to get myself ready for it so everything is pretty fvcked up but FINGERS CROSSED :)
> 
> leave your positive/negative comments, they mean A LOT to me and feel free to point out any grammatical mistakes
> 
>  
> 
> HOPE YOU HAD ENJOYED!!!1!!1 
> 
> stay street |-/


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